On this date in 976, Li Yu (born 936) of the Southern Tang Dynasty surrendered to the armies of the Song. Li Yu had attempted to buy off the Song Emperor for many years, trying to preserve a kingdom that covered modern day Jiangxi as well as parts of Anhui, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Fujian. Holding out in his capital at Jinling (today’s Nanjing) Li Yu even voluntarily abdicated his title as “emperor” in an attempt to appease the Song court. No dice. In the winter of 975 Song troops stormed Jinling and Li Yu was taken prisoner. He lingered in the Song capital of Kaifeng for a few years until, as the story goes, he was poisoned after having the temerity to write a poem lamenting the loss of his empire and accusing the Song emperor of raping his wife.
Staying in the Song for a moment, on this date in 1085 Song historian Sima Guang published his classic 《资治通鉴》”A Comprehensive Mirror on Government,” a tour de force with 294 volumes and 3 million characters chronicling over a millennium of history.
Today is the birthday of Peking opera star Cheng Yanqiu (1904-1958). He was born in Beijing to a banner family that had seen better days. Cheng was rescued from poverty when another resident of his courtyard, a performer of Peking Opera, noticed the delicate young man and introduced him to Rong Dieshan, who became Cheng’s teacher. Cheng Yanqiu first took the stage at 11 and by 20 was considered a Peking opera superstar.
On January 1, 1912, the founding of the Republic of China was announced by President Sun Yat-sen. Sun had been elected president two days earlier but held the post for just two months before turning over power to Yuan Shikai. Yuan would later order the assassination of Song Jiaoren, the charismatic young KMT politician who was set to become China’s first (and so far only) democratically-elected Prime Minister. Yuan ultimately disbanded parliament (a few times) and allowed the country to fall into chaos before trying to sell the whole mess to Japan. Seriously, not even Axl Rose signing an exclusive distribution deal with Best Buy screwed the chances for Chinese democracy this badly. In December 1915, Yuan finally just said “to hell with it” and declared himself emperor with January 1, 1916 as the first date of his 洪憲 Hongxian or “Glorious Constitution” Dynasty. We all know how well that worked out.
Speaking of screwing the Republic of China, today marks the 30th anniversary of formal diplomatic ties between the US and the PRC.
Finally, today is the birthday of revolutionary Hong Xiuquan (born 1814), who led the Taiping Rebellion after convincing himself and 100,000 of his closest friends and neighbors that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ. And it’s also the birthday of Chinese gymnast He Kexin born in either 1992 or 1994 depending on whether or not you work for the PRC General Administration of Sport.
Happy New Year!
